System and method for routing marketing opportunities to sales agents

Abstract

A system and method for routing marketing opportunities to sales agents is described. One embodiment receives a plurality of consumer responses to marketing invitations; tracks, in a database, attributes of the consumers associated with the plurality of consumer responses, attributes of a plurality of sales agents with whom the consumers interact, product-related attributes, and transitions of the consumers among a plurality of consumer states; analyzes the information in the database to identify one or more factors that contributed to at least one transition; generates one or more routing rules based on the one or more factors; receives a new consumer response to a marketing invitation; and routes the new consumer response to a particular sales agent among the plurality of sales agents based on the one or more routing rules.

1 . A system for routing marketing opportunities to sales agents, the system comprising:
 at least one processor, and   a memory connected with the at least one processor, the memory containing a plurality of program instructions configured to cause the at least one processor to:
 receive a plurality of consumer responses to marketing invitations; 
 track, in a database, attributes of the consumers associated with the plurality of consumer responses, attributes of a plurality of sales agents with whom the consumers interact, product-related attributes, and transitions of the consumers among a plurality of consumer states, each of the plurality of consumer states corresponding to a particular situation in a sales lifecycle; 
 identify, by analyzing information in the database, one or more factors that contributed to at least one transition; 
 generate one or more routing rules based on the one or more factors; 
 receive a new consumer response to a marketing invitation; and 
 route the new consumer response to a particular sales agent among the plurality of sales agents based on the one or more routing rules. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more factors that contributed to at least one transition are identified using a regression analysis. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the at least one transition is a dependent variable in the regression analysis. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein an agent category is a dependent variable in the regression analysis, the agent category comprising a subset of the plurality of sales agents, each sales agent in the subset of the plurality of sales agents having at least one common attribute. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of program instructions are further configured to cause the at least one processor to obtain additional information about the new consumer response based on at least one known piece of information about the new consumer response. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the at least one known piece of information about the new consumer response is a consumer telephone number and the additional information about the new consumer response is at least one of a consumer ZIP code, a consumer gender, a consumer income, a consumer education level, and a consumer home value. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of program instructions are further configured to cause the at least one processor to analyze the new consumer response in real-time to predict additional information about the new consumer response. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , where the additional information about the new consumer response is at least one of a consumer gender and a consumer emotional state. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the new consumer response is a real-time electronic communication. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the attributes of a sales agent in the plurality of sales agents include at least one of a sales agent nationality, a sales agent accent, a sales agent education level, a sales agent product knowledge level, a sales agent age, a sales agent gender, and a sales agent ZIP code. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the attributes of a consumer include at least one of a consumer gender, a consumer geographic location, a consumer income, a consumer race, a consumer education level, a consumer emotional state, and a consumer home value. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of program instructions are further configured to cause the at least one processor to track, in a database, the mode of communication used by a sales agent to interact with the consumer associated with each of the plurality of consumer responses. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the plurality of program instructions are further configured to cause the at least one processor to suggest to the particular sales agent a particular mode of communication for interacting with the consumer associated with the new consumer response. 
     
     
         14 . A method for routing marketing opportunities to sales agents, the method comprising:
 receiving a plurality of consumer responses to marketing invitations;   tracking, in a database stored in a memory, attributes of the consumers associated with the plurality of consumer responses, attributes of a plurality of sales agents with whom the consumers interact, product-related attributes, and transitions of the consumers among a plurality of consumer states, each of the plurality of consumer states corresponding to a particular situation in a sales lifecycle;   identifying, by using a processor to analyze information in the database, one or more factors that contributed to at least one transition;   generating one or more routing rules based on the one or more factors;   receiving a new consumer response to a marketing invitation; and   routing the new consumer response to a particular sales agent among the plurality of sales agents based on the one or more routing rules.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the one or more factors that contributed to at least one transition are identified using a regression analysis. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the at least one transition is a dependent variable in the regression analysis. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein an agent category is a dependent variable in the regression analysis, the agent category comprising a subset of the plurality of sales agents, each sales agent in the subset of the plurality of sales agents having at least one common attribute. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising obtaining additional information about the new consumer response using at least one known piece of information about the new consumer response. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the at least one known piece of information about the new consumer response is a consumer telephone number and the additional information about the new consumer response is at least one of a consumer ZIP code, a consumer gender, a consumer income, a consumer education level, and a consumer home value. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising tracking, in the database stored in the memory, the mode of communication used by a sales agent to interact with the consumer associated with each of the plurality of consumer responses. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20 , further comprising suggesting to the particular sales agent a particular mode of communication for interacting with the consumer associated with the new consumer response. 
     
     
         22 . A computer-readable storage medium containing a plurality of program instructions for execution by a processor, the plurality of program instructions being configured to:
 receive a plurality of consumer responses to marketing invitations;   track, in a database, attributes of the consumers associated with the plurality of consumer responses, attributes of a plurality of sales agents with whom the consumers interact, product-related attributes, and transitions of the consumers among a plurality of consumer states, each of the plurality of consumer states corresponding to a particular situation in a sales lifecycle;   identify, by using a processor to analyze information in the database, one or more factors that contributed to at least one transition;   generate one or more routing rules based on the one or more factors;   receive a new consumer response to a marketing invitation; and   route the new consumer response to a particular sales agent among the plurality of sales agents based on the one or more routing rules.